Communication apparatus, information processing method, program, and storage medium

ABSTRACT

This invention has as its object to avoid occurrence of garble even when an e-mail message to be created includes text information described in character codes of different kinds of language. To achieve this object, a communication apparatus according to this invention includes an input unit which inputs image information, a recognition unit which extracts text information included in the image information input by the input unit, and recognizing a type of character code of the extracted text information, an embedding unit which embeds the extracted text information in a text of e-mail using character codes of the type recognized by the recognition unit, and describing the recognized type (510, 516) of character code and an identifier (509, 515, 526) indicating a description range of the extracted text information in the text of e-mail, and a sending unit which sends e-mail data embedded by the embedding unit.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/585,090,filed Jun. 30, 2006, (allowed), which is a § 371 of InternationalApplication No. PCT/JP2005/014154, filed Jul. 27, 2005, which claimspriority to Japanese Application No. JP 2004-224581, filed Jul. 30,2004.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an information processing technique forgenerating e-mail data.

BACKGROUND ART

In recent years, along with popularization of computers and prevalenceof networked environments of information, e-mail messages that exchangetext information via networks have prevailed.

E-mail allows to attach files of various formats as “attached files” toa “text of e-mail” that includes mail text as text information, and amail header that describes various kinds of control information. Forexample, by exploiting Internet FAX (to be abbreviated as “IFAX”hereinafter), images can be exchanged by attaching a TIFF (Tag ImageFile Format) format file.

More specifically, a sender converts an image, which is scanned by ascanner, into a TIFF format, and sends it as an attached file of e-mail.A receiver receives the e-mail, and reproduces and prints the attachedTIFF file, thus implementing exchange of the image between the senderand receiver.

Recently, a technique for, upon sending a document which includeshandwritten text and an image together via e-mail, not only sending animage scanned by a scanner as an attached file, but also extracting textinformation by applying an OCR to the scanned image, and embedding theextracted text information in a text of e-mail when it is sent has beenproposed (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-306105).

Furthermore, the IFAX is literally used in the Internet environments,and is increasingly used in international environments. Hence, charactercodes do not match between a sender and receiver, and when receivede-mail is displayed, garble often occurs in the text of e-mail. In orderto solve such problem, a technique for switching a character code andfont on the basis of a character string at the end of an e-mail addresshas been proposed (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-184778).

However, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-306105, whene-mail is created by embedding text information extracted by the OCRinto the text of e-mail, some documents scanned by the scanner may oftenbe garbled. For example, when e-mail is created by inputting Japanesetext information to a text of e-mail, and embedding Korean textinformation, which is extracted by scanning a document written in Koreanusing the scanner and applying the OCR, into the text of e-mail writtenin Japanese (i.e., when the single text of e-mail includes textinformation described in character codes of different kinds oflanguage), the receiver side that received that e-mail displays garbledKorean text information since the character code does not match.

That is, when e-mail is normally created by inputting Japanese textinformation to a text of e-mail, and embedding Japanese textinformation, which is extracted by scanning a document written inJapanese using the scanner and applying the OCR, into the text ofe-mail, since the identical character code is used, no problem of garbleis posed. However, when text information used in documents becomesdiversified based on pervasion of current globalization, and languagessuch as Chinese, Korean, and the like are increasingly used daily, suchproblem of garble becomes obvious.

On the other hand, the problem of garble has been discussed in, e.g.,Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-184778, this reference targets at acase wherein character codes of the sender and receiver do not match,and cannot be applied to a case wherein the text of e-mail includes textinformation of different character codes.

Furthermore, the problem of garble may be caused not only by the processon the sender side but also that on the receiver side. For example, asystem which stores a received e-mail message in a mail box in a mailserver, and in which a communication apparatus creates a notificatione-mail message using text information of a text of the received e-mailmessage, and text information used to notify the receiver that thee-mail message is stored in the mail box (text information appended bythe communication apparatus), and sends the created notification e-mailmessage to the receiver will be exemplified below.

In such system, when the communication apparatus creates a notificatione-mail message, and the kind of language of a character code of textinformation included in the text of the received e-mail message isdifferent from that of a character code of text information (which isused to notify the receiver that the e-mail message is stored in themail box) to be appended by the communication apparatus, thenotification e-mail message to be created includes text informationdescribed in text codes of different kinds of language, and the receiverthat receives the created notification e-mail message displays garbledcontents due to mismatch of the character codes.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The present invention has been made in consideration of the abovesituation, and has as its object to avoid occurrence of garble even whenan e-mail message to be created includes text information described incharacter codes of different kinds of language.

More specifically, it is the first object of the present invention toprovide a communication apparatus which can create and send e-mail byextracting text information by applying an OCR to an image, which isscanned using an image input device such as a scanner or the like, andembedding the extracted text information into a text of e-mail, whereineven when the kind of language of a character code of the extracted textinformation is different from that of a character code of textinformation which is input to the text of e-mail, the communicationapparatus can create the e-mail so as to avoid garbled contents frombeing displayed on the receiver side that receives the e-mail.

It is the second object of the present invention to provide a systemwhich stores a received e-mail message, and in which a communicationapparatus creates a notification e-mail message using text informationof a text of the received e-mail message, and text information used tonotify the receiver that the e-mail message is stored in the mail box,and sends the created notification e-mail message to the receiver,wherein even when the kind of language of a character code of textinformation included in the text of the received e-mail message isdifferent from that of a character code of text information to beappended by the communication apparatus, the system creates thenotification e-mail message so as to avoid garbled contents from beingdisplayed on the receiver side that receives the notification e-mailmessage.

In order to achieve the above objects, a communication apparatusaccording to the present invention comprises the following arrangement.That is, a communication apparatus, comprises:

input means for inputting image information;

recognition means for extracting text information included in the imageinformation input by the input means, and recognizing a type ofcharacter code of the extracted text information;

embedding means for embedding the extracted text information in a textof e-mail using character codes of the type recognized by therecognition means, and describing the recognized type of character codeand an identifier indicating a description range of the extracted textinformation in the text of e-mail; and

sending means for sending e-mail data embedded by the embedding means.

According to the present invention, even when an e-mail message to becreated includes text information described in character codes ofdifferent kinds of language, occurrence of garble can be avoided.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate thesame or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will besufficiently understood by referring to the following detaileddescription of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the connection arrangement of anetwork which comprises a communication apparatus according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the system arrangement of thecommunication apparatus according to the embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of programs of the communicationapparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining a send setting function of thecommunication apparatus;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of an Email sending process ofthe communication apparatus;

FIG. 6 shows an example of e-mail data to be sent from a communicationapparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining a data transfer setting function of thecommunication apparatus;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of a data transfer process of thecommunication apparatus; and

FIG. 9 shows an example of notification e-mail data to be transferred bya communication apparatus according to the second embodiment of thepresent invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An overview of respective embodiments of the present invention will beexplained first. In a conventional communication apparatus, when textinformation to be input to a text of e-mail is, e.g., Japanese, and textinformation extracted by applying an OCR to an image scanned by ascanner is Korean, an e-mail message is created by directly embeddingthe extracted text information in the text of e-mail input in Japanese.For this reason, a single e-mail message includes text informationdescribed in character codes of different kinds of language. As aresult, the receiver that receives the created e-mail message cannotrecognize that the text information of the text of e-mail include aplurality of different character codes, and displays it using one typeof character code, thus causing garble.

By contrast, in a communication apparatus according to the firstembodiment, upon embedding text information extracted by applying an OCRinto a text of e-mail, the type of character code of the extracted textinformation is detected (on the basis of an operator's instruction orautomatically). The detected type of character code and an identifierthat indicates a description range of the extracted text information aredescribed in the text of e-mail to clearly specify them to the receiverside, thus avoiding occurrence of garble.

On the other hand, in a system which stores a received e-mail message ina mail box, and in which a communication apparatus creates anotification e-mail message using text information of a text of thereceived e-mail message, and text information used to notify thereceiver that the e-mail message is stored in the mail box, and sendsthe created notification e-mail message to the receiver, even when thetype of character code of text information included in the text of thereceived e-mail message is different from that of text information to beappended by the communication apparatus, the conventional communicationapparatus creates a notification e-mail message using text informationdescribed in character codes of different kinds of language in thesingle text of e-mail. For this reason, the receiver that receives thecreated notification e-mail message cannot recognize that the textinformation of the text of e-mail includes a plurality of differentcharacter codes, and displays it using one type of character code, thuscausing garble.

By contrast, in a communication apparatus according to the secondembodiment, upon describing text information of the text of the receivede-mail massage in the text of the notification e-mail message, the typeof character code of the text information, and identifier that indicatesa description range of that text information are described to clearlyspecify them to the receiver side, thus avoiding occurrence of garble.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described indetail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings asneeded.

First Embodiment

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the connection arrangement of anetwork which comprises a communication apparatus according to the firstembodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, reference numerals 100 to 102 denote MFPs (MultiFunction Peripherals) which are multi-function copying machines, each ofwhich incorporates a scanner, printer, and the like, and has a copyfunction, a FAX sending/receiving function, a printer function ofprinting data created on a computer, and the like.

The MFPs 100 to 102 are connected to a network (domain name: xyz.co.jp),and are connected to a plurality of computers and network devicesincluding an SMTP server/POP server 103, client PCs 104 and 106, and thelike.

This network is also connected to the Internet 110 which spreadsglobally. A network (domain name: abc.co.kr) in Korea is also connectedto the Internet 110. An SMTP server/POP server 120, client PC 121,Internet FAX 122, and the like are further connected to this network.

The MFP 100 is assigned with a HOST name copy1.xyz.co.jp and an e-mailaddress ifax@copy1.xyz.co.jp of that device. The MFP 101 is assignedwith a HOST name copy2.xyz.co.jp and an e-mail addressifax@copy2.xyz.co.jp of that device. Furthermore, the MFP 102 isassigned with a HOST name copy3.xyz.co.jp and an e-mail addressifax@copy3.xyz.co.jp of that device.

The client PC 104 is installed with general-purpose e-mail software, andis assigned with an e-mail address yamada@xyz.co.jp. Likewise, theclient PC 106 is assigned with an e-mail address satou@xyz.co.jp. TheSMTP server/POP server 103 has functions of both the SMTP and POPservers, and the SMTP server/POP server 120 also has the same functions.

When an e-mail message is to be sent from the client PC 104 totanaka@abc.co.kr, e-mail data created by the e-mail software on theclient PC 104 is delivered to the SMTP server 103 using an SMTP (SimpleMail Transfer Protocol) protocol, is delivered from the SMTP server 103to the POP server 120 using the SMTP protocol via the Internet 110, andis stored in a mail box of tanaka@abc.co.kr in the POP server 120.

The client PC 121 is also installed with general-purpose e-mailsoftware, which monitors from the client PC 121 at given intervals usinga POP3 (Post Office Protocol-Version 3) protocol, if e-mail messageshave reached the mail box of tanaka@abc.co.kr in the POP server 120. Ife-mail messages have reached the POP server 120, the e-mail softwarereceives the e-mail data.

When an e-mail message is to be sent from tanaka@abc.co.kr of the clientPC 121 to yamada@xyz.co.jp of the client PC 104, the reverse route isfollowed. That is, e-mail data created by the general-purpose e-mailsoftware on the client PC 121 is relayed by the SMTP server 120, is thensent to the POP server 103, and is stored in a mail box ofyamada@xyz.co.jp in the POP server 103.

The client PC 104 operates to acquire the e-mail data which is deliveredusing the POP3 protocol from the mail box of yamada@xyz.co.jp.

Each of the MFPs 100 to 102 has an Email sending mode based on thepremise that images received by the FAX and IFAX reception functions andmonochrome/color images scanned by a scanner are sent to general e-mailaddresses, and an IFAX sending mode based on the premise that suchimages are sent to an apparatus complying with the IFAX standard.

Transmission/Reception Performs the Same Operations as That of theClient PCs 104 and 121 using SMTP and POP3.

In the Email sending mode, when a color image is scanned by a scanner,an image of a JPEG format or PDF (Portable Document Format) file is sentas an attached file. Also, when a monochrome image is scanned, a TIFF orPDF image can be sent as an attached file. When an e-mail message withsuch attached file is sent to the e-mail address yamada@xyz.co.jp, theclient PC 104 receives that e-mail message using the POP3 protocol, andcan display an image using a general-purpose image viewer.

In the IFAX sending mode, an image scanned by the scanner is sent to theIFAX MFPs 100 to 102 or the Internet FAX 122 as a TIFF image complyingwith RFC2301 using the SMTP and POP3 protocols.

<Arrangement of MFP>

FIG. 2 shows the arrangement of the MFP 100. A CPU 130 is a controlcircuit which controls the overall system using programs stored in a ROM131 and a memory area of a RAM 132.

A console 133 includes an LCD display panel, and hard keys such as astart key, ten-keys, and the like. The console 133 has the followingfunction. That is, the console 133 displays software buttons on the LCDdisplay panel, and smoothly executes user's operations when the usertouches one of these buttons.

A scanner 134 is a device for photoelectrically converting a documentimage into electrical image data. More specifically, the scanner 134feeds a document from an automatic document feeder onto a platen glass.When the document reaches the platen glass, a lamp is turned on, and ascanner begins to move, and exposes and scans the document. Lightreflected by the document is guided to a CCD image sensor via mirrorsand lenses, and is converted into an electrical signal, which isconverted into digital data by an A/D converter. Upon completion of thedocument scan operation, the document on the platen glass is exhausted.

A printer unit 135 is a device which prints electrical image data on aprint sheet. More specifically, a laser emission unit emits a laser beamaccording to the electrical image data, and a photosensitive drum isirradiated with the laser beam to form a latent image according to thelaser beam on the photosensitive drum. A developer applies toner to thelatent image on the photosensitive drum, and a print sheet is fed from apaper cassette at a timing synchronized with the start of irradiation ofthe laser beam, thus transferring the toner attached to thephotosensitive drum to the print sheet. The print sheet on which thetoner image is formed is conveyed to a fixing unit, and the toner imageis fixed to the print sheet by heat and pressure of the fixing unit. Theprint sheet that has left the fixing unit is exhausted by exhaustrollers. The exhausted print sheet is stored in each bin by a sorter,thus sorting print sheets.

An image processing circuit 136 comprises a large-capacity image memory,image rotation circuit, resolution zoom circuit, encoding/decodingcircuit (MH, MR, MMR, JBIG, JPEG, and the like), and the like, and canexecute various image processes such as shading, trimming, masking, andthe like.

A hard disk 137 is a large-capacity storage medium connected via an I/Fsuch as SCSI, USB, or the like. The present invention is not limited tothe hard disk, and recording media such as MO and the like may be used.

A network I/F 138 has a function of implementing a network data linkrequired to connect a network such as Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-T),Token ring, or the like.

A formatter unit 139 comprises a PC I/F circuit such as a parallelinterface complying with IEEE1284, USB, or the like. The formatter unit139 has a rendering function for generating image data on the basis ofPDL (Page Description Language) data, which is received from a personalcomputer via the PC I/F circuit or the network I/F circuit. Thegenerated image data undergoes image processes by the image processingcircuit 136, and is printed by the printer 135.

A FAX unit 140 is a FAX I/F circuit which is connected to a telephoneline, and comprises circuits such as an NCU (Network Control Unit),MODEM (MOdulator/DEModulator), and the like. Image data scanned by thescanner 134 undergoes image processes by the image processing circuit136, and the FAX unit 140 sends the processed image to another FAX viathe telephone line. The FAX unit 140 receives data sent from anotherFAX. The received image data undergoes image processes by the imageprocessing circuit 136, and is printed by the printer 135.

The scanner 134, printer 135, image processing circuit 136, formatterunit 139, and FAX unit 140 are connected via a high-speed video busindependent of a CPU bus from the CPU 130, and can transfer image dataat a high speed.

Image data scanned by the scanner 134 undergoes image processes by theimage processing circuit 136, and is printed by the printer 135, thusimplementing the copy function.

The MFP 100 also has a Send function of sending image data scanned bythe scanner 134 onto the network from the network I/F after the imagedata undergoes image processes by the image processing circuit 136, oran IFAX function of generating an image complying with RFC2301 by theimage processing circuit 136, and exchanging the data using an e-mailprotocol.

<Network Program Configuration of MFP>

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining the configuration of network programs ofthe MFP 100. The network programs are roughly classified into threelayers, i.e., an IP (Internet Protocol) 200, TCP (Transmission ControlProtocol)/UDP (User Datagram Protocol) 201, and programs (protocols) 202of an application layer.

The IP 200 is a protocol layer of the Internet, which provides a servicefor delivering a message from a source host to a destination host incollaboration with relay nodes such as routers and the like. The IP 200implements a routing function of managing an address of a source whichsends data, and an address of a destination that receives data, andmanaging a delivery route of data in the network to the destination hostin accordance with the address information.

The TCP/UDP 201 is a transport layer which provides a service fordelivering a message from a source application process to a receivingapplication process. The TCP is a connection type service, andguarantees high communication reliability, but the UDP is aconnection-less service, and does not guarantee any reliability.

The protocols 202 of the application layer specify a plurality ofprotocols, which include FTP (File Transfer Protocol) as a file transferservice, SNMP as a network management protocol, LPD as a printer serverprotocol, HTTPd as a protocol of a WWW (World Wide Web) server, ane-mail exchange protocol SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), a maildownload protocol POP3 (Post Office Protocol-Version3), LDAP as aprotocol required to access a directory database that manages an e-mailaddress of the user and the like, and so forth. Also, a kerberosauthentication program specified by RFC1510 is installed.

<Setting Window Upon Sending E-mail in MFP>

FIG. 4 shows an example of a send setting window which is displayed onthe console 133 when the MFP 100 sends image data scanned by the scanner134 as an e-mail message.

The user can designate a document size to be scanned by the scanner 134using a scan size input field 300. The user can designate a paper sizesuch as A3, A4, A5, B4, B5, 11×17, LTR, STMT, or the like, and itsdirection. In FIG. 4, since “auto” is set, a value sensed by a documentsensor included in the scanner 134 is loaded.

The user can designate a resolution when the scanner 134 scans an imageusing a resolution input field 301. The user can designate a resolutionfrom 200×100, 200×200, 200×400, 300×300, 400×400 and 600×600 dpi. Adefault value is 200×200. In FIG. 4, 600×600 dpi are set. Upon pressinga detail setting button 302, detailed scanning operations such asdensity setting, document type designation, two-sided scan, continuouspage scan designation, image quality adjustment, and the like.

Upon selecting an e-mail destination address input field 303, the usercan select addresses registered in an address book. Note that themaximum number of addresses that can be registered in the sendingaddress input field 303 is 256, and addresses more than this valuecannot be input.

An OCR sending button 304 is used to select whether an OCR is applied toan image scanned by the scanner 134 to extract character code data, andis enabled for a sending address of e-mail. If “ON” is selected for thisbutton 304, a text region is extracted from the scanned image using ablock selection function, and the OCR is applied to the text region toextract text information.

The extracted text information is embedded in a text of e-mail, and issent to an address described in the e-mail destination address inputfield 303. Also, a PDF file may be created using the scanned image, andtext information extracted by the OCR, and may be attached to e-mail,which can be sent to an address described in the e-mail destinationaddress input field 303.

The user sets a language of a document described in an image to bescanned by the scanner 134 using a Document language input field 305,and can set it from OCR dictionaries of the MFP 100. With this setting,the MFP 100 can recognize the type of character code of text informationto be extracted by the OCR. This setting is not indispensable, and adictionary may be automatically selected from characters which matchduring the OCR process.

A Subject input field 306 and text input field 307 are respectively asubject and mail text in e-mail to be sent. Upon selecting each of theseinput fields, a software keyboard is displayed, and a character stringcan be input. Note that this software keyboard varies depending on theplaces of destination. For example, in case of an MFP for Japan,Japanese can be input using Kanji characters by this keyboard and aJapanese FEP (Front End Processor). Likewise, in case of an MFP forKorea, Korean can be input using a keyboard for Korea, and Korean FEP.Also, in case of an MFP for Europe, German, French, and the like can beinput using a keyboard for Europe. Note that a language used in theSubject input field 306 and text input field 307 need not always be thesame as the Document language input field 305.

A start key 308 is a hard key which is set beside the console 133. Uponpressing this key, the scanner 134 can be driven. Blue and red LEDs 309are mounted at the center of the start key 308. When none of addressesof the destination address input field 303 are designated, the red LED309 is turned on to inform the user that the scanner 134 cannot bedriven even when he or she presses the start key 308. If at least oneaddress is designated in the destination address input field 303, theblue LED is turned on to inform the user that the scanner 134 is readyto drive.

<Flow of Processes in Email Sending Mode of MFP>

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of the processes in the Emailsending mode which performs a sending operation, to an e-maildestination address, of e-mail data which is obtained by driving thescanner 134 by the start key 308 in the MFP 100 to scan a document seton the feeder, and is encoded using the MIME specification as follows.

After a document set on the feeder is scanned, the control enters anEmail sending flow in step S400. In step S401, a mail header (500 to507) in FIG. 6 is created. In FIG. 6, an X-priority field (500)indicates that the e-mail priority is highest. A Date field (501) iscreated based on time data of a timepiece set in the MFP 100, and a Fromfield (502) is created based on an e-mail address of the device set inthe MFP 100. A Subject field (503) includes data of an encoded-wordformat which is obtained by converting a character string of SJIS codes,which is input to the Subject input field 306 into JIS codes, andencoding the converted character string by BASE64. A Message-Id field(505) includes a sending time, sending reception number, domain name,and the like, and serves as a unique identifier to each e-mail data. AContent-Type field (507) indicates that an e-mail message includes aplurality of parts, each of which is delimited by a character string“boundary”.

Referring back to FIG. 5, in step S402, mail text input in the textinput field 307 is created. More specifically, the text corresponds tofields 509 to 514 in FIG. 6. Note that 509 and 515 indicate datadelimiters.

Since the MFP 100 (copy1.xyz.co.jp) is that for Japan, the softwarekeyboard and FEP are Japanese, and the mail text is created in Japanese.Hence, a field 510 describes that an e-mail part is text information,and its character set includes JIS codes of ISO-2022-JP, and a field 511describes that 7-bit data is stored. A field 513 includes a characterstring obtained by converting SJIS codes “I'll send OCR result of Koreanmanual.” in the text input field 307 into JIS codes.

In step S403, the value set for the OCR sending button 304 is compared.If “ON” is set, an OCR process is executed to apply the OCR to an imagescanned by the scanner 134 so as to extract text information in stepS404. In the OCR process in step S404, text information is extractedwhile comparing Font data corresponding to the language set in theDocument language input field 305 and characters written in the imagescanned by the scanner 134. If the characters written in the image donot match the language set in the Document language input field 305,they may be compared to Font data of other languages, thus improving theOCR extraction rate.

In step S405, the text information extracted in step S404 is embedded inthe e-mail data like fields 521 to 524. A field 516 indicates that ane-mail part is obtained by encoding Korean text information using acharacter set of ISO-2022-KR. A field 517 includes the encoding resultusing ISO-2022-KR, and indicates that 7-bit data is stored. Fields 521to 524 include character codes obtained by encoding, using ISO-2022-KR,text information which is extracted by applying the OCR to the imagescanned by the scanner. A field 526 indicates the last delimiter of theembedded e-mail data.

In an OCR file name creation process in step S411, the OCR is applied tothe first page of an image scanned by the scanner 134, and first textinformation obtained by the OCR process is used as a file name of thisfile. As indicated by fields 517 and 519, the obtained file name isdescribed by encoding it using ISO-2022-KR, and appending an extension“.txt” to the result. Note that text information used as a file name isa first character string obtained by the OCR. Alternatively, a method ofdesignating a position used as a file name, or a method of selectingtext information at a specific position of an image as a file name maybe used. The method of designating text information obtained by the OCRas a file name has been explained. Also, a method of designating textinformation obtained by the OCR as Subject of e-mail may be similarlyrealized.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S403 that the OCR sendingfield is set to be “OFF”, the flow advances to step S406 to create amulti-page TIFF file on the basis of an image scanned by the scanner134. Furthermore, the TIFF file is encoded by BASE64 to create e-maildata in step S407. The created e-mail data is sent by SMTP in step S408,and the sending result is written in a log in step S409, thus ending theprocess in the Email sending mode.

Note that the result written in the log can be printed as a sendingresult report and communication management report. Also, the result canbe displayed on the console 133 to confirm the sending result.

As can be seen from the above description, according to thecommunication apparatus of this embodiment, upon embedding textinformation extracted by applying an OCR into a text of e-mail, the typeof character code of the extracted text information is detected (on thebasis of an operator's instruction or automatically). The detected typeof character code and an identifier that indicates a description rangeof the text information to be embedded are described in the text ofe-mail to clearly specify them to the receiver side, thus avoidingoccurrence of garble.

That is, the receiver side can display the extracted text information ofthat described in the text of the received e-mail message using theKorean character codes, and can display the input text information usingJapanese character codes. As a result, occurrence of garble can beavoided.

Second Embodiment

In the first embodiment, the communication apparatus which createse-mail by embedding, into a text of e-mail, text information, which isextracted by applying an OCR to a document scanned using the scanner,has been explained. However, a communication apparatus according to thepresent invention is not limited to this.

In this embodiment, a communication apparatus for creating anotification e-mail message to be sent in a system which stores areceived e-mail message in a mail box, and in which the communicationapparatus creates a notification e-mail message using text informationof a text of the received e-mail message, and text information used tonotify the receiver that the e-mail message is stored in the mail box(text information appended by the communication apparatus), and sendsthe created notification e-mail message to the receiver will beexplained.

<Data Transfer Function Setting Window of MFP>

FIG. 7 shows a setting window used to set a data transfer function ofexternally transferring IFAX/FAX-received e-mail data, or storing thee-mail in a mail box in the communication apparatus (MFP 100) accordingto the second embodiment of the present invention.

A receiving means input field 600 is used to designate receiving means.The user can select either FAX or IFAX. In this embodiment, theoperation executed when IFAX is set as the receiving means will beexplained.

When the receiving means input field 600 is IFAX, a transfer destinationis determined by comparing To, From, and Subject described in thereceived e-mail message with character strings set in a To input field601, From input field 603, and Subject input field 605.

The comparison method includes seven choices: “do not consider”,“include following”, “match following”, “not match following”, “startingfrom following”, “end with following”, and “exclude following”. Ifconditions are matched, the received e-mail is transferred to thedesignation designated in a transfer destination input field 607. Amaximum of 150 transfer destinations can be set, and a print process isexecuted if all the transfer conditions are not matched.

In the transfer destination input field 607, the address book and mailboxes 1 to 50 present in the SMTP server/POP server 103 can be set. Whena destination in the address book is set, the destination is designatedby selecting a category from FAX, Email, and IFAX.

When one of mail boxes 1 to 50 is selected in the transfer destinationinput field 607, a URL sending button 608 is allowed to select. When anaddress is selected from another address book, the URL sending button608 is displayed by hatching, and cannot be selected.

When one of mail boxes 1 to 50 is selected in the transfer destinationinput field 607, and the URL sending button 608 is selected, an input toa URL sending destination input field 609 is allowed.

The URL sending destination input field 609 can be selected fromdestinations registered in an e-mail category of the address book. Uponreception of IFAX, the MFP 100 stores an IFAX reception document in oneof mail boxes 1 to 50, and sends a notification e-mail message thatdescribes a URL indicating the storage location to the destination setin the URL sending destination input field 609.

<Flow of Data Transfer Process in MFP>

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of the processes in the MFPexecuted when an image received by the POP or SMTP reception function isto be transferred by the data transfer function, and its URL is to besent.

In step S700, a POP reception process is launched. The POP receptionprocess is periodically launched at POP reception intervals set in theuser mode.

In step S701, in order to confirm if received mail messages are storedin the POP server 103 set in the user mode, the POP server 103 isaccessed according to the POP3 protocol. If e-mail data are found, theyare acquired from the POP server 103 according to the POP3 protocol (POPreception process).

In step S702, an SMTP reception process is launched. The SMTP receptionprocess is launched when e-mail is delivered from the SMTP server 120.In step S703, e-mail data is acquired according to the SMTP protocol.

In step S704, a header (corresponding to the fields 500 to 507 in FIG.6) of the e-mail data received by POP or SMTP is interpreted to acquireTo, From, Subject information, and the like of the e-mail data.

In step S705, the e-mail data is interpreted. More specifically, MINEdata is interpreted to check the data configuration of the e-mail data.If it is determined as a result of interpretation that the e-mail dataof interest is a TIFF image file, an image conversion process isexecuted in step S706.

In step S706, the image conversion process for BASE64-decoding thee-mail data if that e-mail data is encoded by BASE64 or applyinguuencode if the e-mail data is uuencoded is executed. With this process,text data of the e-mail data is converted into binary data.

If the image size of the acquired TIFF file is an A4 image at 200 dpi,which is specified by RFC2301, it is confirmed if the number of mainscan pixels is 1,728. If the number of main scan pixels is not 1,728,the main scan pixels are centered to 1,728 pixels. Furthermore, in caseof an image that causes a decode error, a process for removing errorpixels is also executed.

Upon completion of the image conversion process in step S706, theacquired e-mail data is compared with the data transfer conditions instep S707. More specifically, the data transfer conditions describedusing FIG. 7 are compared with To, From, and Subject obtained by theheader interpretation process in step S704 to examine if the datatransfer conditions are matched. If the data transfer conditions are notmatched, a print process in step S709 is executed, thus ending theprocess in step S719.

On the other hand, if the data transfer conditions are matched, the flowadvances to step S710 to check if the data transfer destination is FAX.If the data transfer destination is a FAX address, the flow advances tostep S711 to execute a FAX sending process. Furthermore, it is checkedin step S712 if the sending destination is IFAX. If the sendingdestination is IFAX, the flow advances to step S713 to execute an IFAXsending process.

Likewise, it is checked in step S714 if the sending destination is anEmail address. If the sending destination is an Email address, the flowadvances to step S715 to execute an Email sending process; otherwise, astorage process in a mail box is executed in step S716.

It is checked in step S717 if the URL sending button 608 is set ON whenthe e-mail data is stored in the mail box. If the URL sending button 608is set ON, a URL sending process is executed in step S718.

Upon executing the URL sending process in step S718, a notificatione-mail message is created using the text of the received e-mail data,and text information used to notify the client PC 104 that e-mail isstored in a mail box. When the notification e-mail message is to becreated, text information included in the text of the received e-maildata, the type of character code of the text information, and anidentifier indicating the description range of that text information aredescribed in the text of the notification e-mail message. The creatednotification e-mail message is sent to the URL sending destination, thusending the reception transfer process. Note that the kind of language ofthe notification message can be arbitrarily selected by the operator.

<Example of URL-Sent E-Mail>

FIG. 9 shows an example of notification e-mail data used to notifyyamada@xyz.co.jp (client PC 104) that e-mail data is stored in a mailbox by the URL sending function, i.e., notification e-mail data to besent by the URL sending process in step S718, when e-mail data sent fromifax@abc.co.kr of Korea is received by copy1.xyz.co.jp, and the receivede-mail data is stored in a mail box of the POP server 103 by the datatransfer setting in copy1.xyz.co.jp.

A field 800 indicates that the priority of this e-mail is highest, and afield 801 includes a date of sending the notification e-mail by the URLsending process.

A From field 802 is set with the e-mail address ifax@copy1.xyz.co.jp ofcopy1.xyz.co.jp, a Subject field 803 is set with “URL Message”, and a Tofield 804 is set with yamada@xyz.co.jp that receives the notificatione-mail message.

A MIME Content-type field 807 indicates that the notification e-mailmessage includes a plurality of parts, and a delimitation characterstring is “boundary”. A field 809 stores that delimiter.

A field 810 indicates that the notification e-mail data is textinformation, and its character set uses Japanese JIS code ofISO-2022-JP, and a field 811 indicates that 7-bit data is consequentlystored. Fields 813 to 819 store that text information, and the followingcontents are converted into JIS codes.

813 sender: ifax@abc.co.kr

814 sending date: Wed, 31 Dec. 2003 17:10:54 +0900

815 subject: To BOX1

817 Data is stored in Box number 1

818 You can refer to images at the following URL

819 http://copy3.canon.co.jp/frame.cgi?FuncType=BOX &Dummy=1077503290427

A field 821 stores delimiter data of mail, and indicates that textinformation written in Japanese ends, and new mail data follows. A field822 indicates that the new mail data is also text information, and itscharacter set is Korean, i.e., ISO-2022-KR. A field 823 indicates that7-bit data is consequently stored.

A field 825 describes text information of the text of the source e-mailsent from ifax@abc.co.kr of Korea to copy1.xzy.co.jp, i.e., a Koreanmessage with the contents “I'll send attached document”, which isencoded by ISO-2022-KR.

A field 827 stores data indicating the end of delimitation of the e-maildata, and indicates that the Korean message ends and no data follows.

When yamada@xyz.co.jp receives this notification e-mail by launchingmail software installed in the client PC 104, he or she can detect thatimage data from ifax@abc.co.kr of Korea is stored in the mail box ofcopy1.xzy.co.jp. When the user clicks a URL, browser software installedin the client PC 104 is launched, and an image can be displayed on theclient PC 104.

Also, the Korean message “I'll send attached document” sent fromifax@abc.co.kr can be confirmed on the mail software.

As can be seen from the above description, according to thecommunication apparatus of this embodiment, upon creating a notificatione-mail message, text information in the text of the received e-mail, thetype of character code of the text information, and an identifier thatindicates a description range of the extracted text information aredescribed in the text of the notification e-mail to clearly specify themto the receiver side, thus avoiding occurrence of garble.

That is, the receiver side can display the extracted text information ofthat described in the text of the received e-mail message using theKorean character codes, and can display the attached text informationusing Japanese character codes. As a result, occurrence of garble can beavoided.

Other Embodiment

Note that the present invention may be applied to either a systemconstituted by a plurality of devices (e.g., a host computer, interfacedevice, reader, printer, and the like), or an apparatus consisting of asingle equipment (e.g., a copying machine, facsimile apparatus, or thelike).

The objects of the present invention are also achieved by supplying astorage medium, which records a program code of a software program thatcan implement the functions of the above-mentioned embodiments to thesystem or apparatus, and reading out and executing the program codestored in the storage medium by a computer (or a CPU or MPU) of thesystem or apparatus.

In this case, the program code itself read out from the storage mediumimplements the functions of the above-mentioned embodiments, and thestorage medium which stores the program code constitutes the presentinvention.

As the storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, aFloppy® disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM,CD-R, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, and the like may beused.

The functions of the above-mentioned embodiments may be implemented notonly by executing the readout program code by the computer but also bysome or all of actual processing operations executed by an OS (operatingsystem) running on the computer on the basis of an instruction of theprogram code.

Furthermore, the functions of the above-mentioned embodiments may beimplemented by some or all of actual processing operations executed by aCPU or the like arranged in a function expansion board or a functionexpansion unit, which is inserted in or connected to the computer, afterthe program code read out from the storage medium is written in a memoryof the expansion board or unit.

As many apparently widely different embodiments of the present inventioncan be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it isto be understood that the invention is not limited to the specificembodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No.2004-224581 filed on Jul. 30, 2004, the entire contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference herein.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A communication apparatus which is capableof receiving an e-mail as Internet FAX, comprising: a display; a networkinterface; a controller, including a memory which stores instructionsand a processor which executes the instructions, the controller beingconfigured to execute the following: receive, via a user interfacedisplayed on the display, settings for an e-mail received as theInternet FAX, wherein the settings include a predetermined storagedestination, conditions and a transmission destination; store image dataattached to a received first e-mail in the predetermined storagedestination according to the conditions included in the settingsreceived via the user interface; acquire first character codes includedas text in the received first e-mail and first classificationinformation which indicates an encoding type of the first charactercodes; and generate, in a case where the image data attached to thefirst e-mail is stored in the predetermined storage destination includedin the settings received via the user interface, a second e-mail havinga multipart format including a first part and a second part; andtransmit, using the network interface, the generated second e-mail tothe transmission destination included in the settings received via theuser interface, wherein, in the first part of the transmitted seconde-mail, second character codes corresponding to notification informationfor notifying that the image data attached to the first e-mail has beenstored in the predetermined storage destination and secondclassification information which indicates an encoding type of thesecond character codes are described, the encoding type of the secondcharacter codes corresponding to a language used by the communicationapparatus, wherein, in the second part of the transmitted second e-mail,the acquired first classification information and the acquired firstcharacter codes are described, and wherein, if another received e-maildoes not satisfy the conditions included in the settings received viathe user interface, image data attached to the received e-mail is notstored in the predetermined storage destination and the second e-mail isnot generated.
 2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1,wherein a part of the second character codes corresponds to URLinformation for accessing the predetermined storage destination.
 3. Thecommunication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquired firstclassification information is described in a header area of the secondpart, and the acquired first character codes are described in a textarea of the second part.
 4. The communication apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the second classification information is described in aheader area of the first part, and the second character codes aredescribed in a text area of the first part.
 5. The communicationapparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a printer, wherein,if another received e-mail does not satisfy the conditions included inthe settings received via the user interface, the image data attached tothe received e-mail is printed by the printer without generating thesecond e-mail based on the received e-mail.
 6. The communicationapparatus according to claim 1, wherein, if a setting of a transmissionof the notification information is disabled in the conditions includedin the settings received via the user interface, the second e-mail isnot transmitted in accordance with storing the image data attached tothe first e-mail.
 7. The control method according to claim 1, whereinthe second classification information is described in a header area ofthe first part, and the second character codes are described in a textarea of the first part.
 8. A control method for controlling acommunication apparatus which is capable of receiving an e-mail asInternet FAX, the communication apparatus comprising a display, anetwork interface, and a controller, including a memory which storesinstructions and a processor which executes the instructions to performthe method, the method comprising steps of: receiving, via a userinterface displayed on the display, settings for an e-mail received asthe Internet FAX, wherein the settings include a predetermined storagedestination, conditions and a transmission destination; storing imagedata attached to a received first e-mail in the predetermined storagedestination according to the conditions included in the settingsreceived via the user interface; acquiring first character codesincluded as text in the received first e-mail and first classificationinformation which indicates an encoding type of the first charactercodes; generating, in a case where the image data attached to the firste-mail is stored in the predetermined storage destination included inthe settings received via the user interface, a second e-mail having amultipart format including a first part and a second part; andtransmitting, using the network interface, the generated second e-mailto the transmission destination included in the settings receives viathe user interface, wherein, in the first part of the transmitted seconde-mail, second character codes corresponding to notification informationfor notifying that the image data attached to the first e-mail has beenstored in the predetermined storage destination and secondclassification information which indicates an encoding type of thesecond character codes are described, where the encoding type of thesecond character codes corresponds to a language used by thecommunication apparatus, wherein, in the second part of the transmittedsecond e-mail, the acquired first classification information and theacquired first character codes are described, and wherein, if anotherreceived e-mail does not satisfy the conditions included in the settingsreceived via the user interface, image data attached to the receivede-mail is not stored in the predetermined storage destination and thesecond e-mail is not generated.
 9. The control method according to claim8, wherein a part of the second character codes corresponds to URLinformation for accessing the predetermined storage destination.
 10. Thecontrol method according to claim 8, wherein the acquired firstclassification information is described in a header area of the secondpart, and the acquired first character codes are described in a textarea of the second part.
 11. The control method according to claim 8,wherein the communication apparatus further comprises a printer,wherein, if another received e-mail does not satisfy the conditionsincluded in the settings received via the user interface, the image dataattached to the received e-mail is printed by the printer withoutgenerating the second e-mail based on the received e-mail.
 12. Thecontrol method according to claim 8, wherein, if a setting of atransmission of the notification information is disabled in theconditions included in the settings received via the user interface, thesecond e-mail is not transmitted in accordance with storing the imagedata attached to the first e-mail.
 13. A non-transitory computerreadable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer toexecute a control method for controlling a communication apparatus whichis capable of receiving an e-mail as Internet FAX, the communicationapparatus comprising a display, a network interface, and a controller,including a memory which stores the computer program and a processorwhich executes the program, the program comprising: code for a receivingstep of receiving, via a user interface displayed on the display,settings for an e-mail received as the internet FAX, wherein thesettings include a predetermined storage destination, conditions and atransmission destination; code for a storing step of storing image dataattached to the received first e-mail in the predetermined storagedestination according to the conditions included in the settingsreceived via the user interface; code for an acquiring step of acquiringfirst character codes included as text in the received first e-mail andfirst classification information which indicates an encoding type of thefirst character codes; code for a generating step of, generating, in acase where the image data attached to the first e-mail is stored in thepredetermined storage destination included in the settings received viathe user interface, a second e-mail having a multipart format includinga first part and a second part; and code for a transmission step oftransmitting, using the network interface, the generated second e-mailto the transmission destination included in the settings received viathe user interface, wherein, in the first part of the transmitted seconde-mail, second character codes corresponding to notification informationfor notifying that the image data attached to the first e-mail has beenstored in the predetermined storage destination and secondclassification information, which indicates an encoding type of thesecond character codes are described, where the encoding type of thesecond character codes corresponds to a language used by thecommunication apparatus, wherein, in the second part of the transmittedsecond e-mail, the acquired first classification information and theacquired first character codes are described, and wherein, if anotherreceived e-mail does not satisfy the conditions included in the settingsreceived via the user interface, image data attached to the receivede-mail is not stored in the predetermined storage destination and thesecond e-mail is not generated.